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What Members Thought
Ha! The day I finished this book Hokitika celebrated its 150th anniversary and they dressed up in period costume and showed off their specially grown beards on the news! They were even stealing Oamaru's thunder and riding penny-farthings! I felt as if I was a part of it all, having been immersed in the tale, even though I live on the other coast. This is an accomplished work, with layers of cleverness that I'm sure I missed, though it is hard to miss the chapter length one.The NZ references make
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Wow, finally finished this one! Real life book club choice for October, only two people managed to finish it by the deadline!
The good? Epic descriptions of New Zealand during the gold rush. Victorian Dickens-esque attention to detail and elaborate intricate plots. Great cast of characters.
The bad? The experiential design and postmodern feel grew wearying. Pace is too slow. The last quarter of the book finally tells you what you need to know. By the time you get there, you just don't care that mu ...more
The good? Epic descriptions of New Zealand during the gold rush. Victorian Dickens-esque attention to detail and elaborate intricate plots. Great cast of characters.
The bad? The experiential design and postmodern feel grew wearying. Pace is too slow. The last quarter of the book finally tells you what you need to know. By the time you get there, you just don't care that mu ...more
The structure was wonderfully clever, the plot seemingly interesting, the characters initially fascinating but somehow it felt empty after awhile. Like an impressive literary exercise that wasn't meant to be enjoyed by real readers. My library book was due and I returned it with maybe 100 out of the 800 unread but didn't feel like it mattered either way.
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Dec 16, 2013
Tracyene
marked it as to-read
Jan 07, 2014
Melissa
marked it as to-read
Jan 14, 2014
Erica
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2014
Tammy AZ
marked it as to-read
May 28, 2014
Kat (A Journey In Reading)
marked it as to-read
Jul 01, 2014
m00ngrrrl
marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2014
Tanya
marked it as to-read
Aug 11, 2015
Mariana
marked it as to-read
Jan 17, 2016
Renate
marked it as to-read
Jan 01, 2018
Jules
marked it as to-read
Feb 22, 2019
Denise
marked it as physical-tbr
Jun 18, 2021
Anika
marked it as to-read
Oct 20, 2022
Diane
marked it as to-read
Aug 12, 2024
Amy 💖
marked it as to-read
